1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments relate to an ambient light sensing circuit and a flat panel display including such an ambient light sensing circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flat panel displays include organic light emitting displays, liquid crystal displays, plasma displays and electric field emitting displays, etc. Such flat panel displays are relatively thinner, lighter and consume less power than conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) displays. Of the flat panel displays, organic light emitting displays and liquid crystal displays are generally more widely employed as displays for portable electronic devices because they are relatively easier to reduce in size and may be used with a battery for a relatively long time.
In general, screen brightness of flat panel displays, e.g., organic light emitting displays or liquid crystal displays, may be adjusted manually with user manipulation. However, they are generally designed to display a screen with constant brightness irrespective of ambient brightness. For example, typically, flat panel displays are designed to have optimum screen brightness in a room where ambient brightness is not high. Hence, screen brightness may be relatively too high in a dark place and may be relatively too low under sunlight. Therefore, there may be problems associated with visibility.
Further, because conventional flat panel displays may be designed to have constant screen brightness, when using such a flat panel display for a long time in a place where ambient brightness is relatively low, if screen brightness is not manually adjusted, screen brightness may be unnecessarily high and, as a result, power consumption may also be unnecessarily high.
Moreover, in conventional flat panel displays, a sensor, a processing circuit, etc., are formed on a different substrate from a main substrate on which a flat display panel is formed. Thus, if an ambient light sensing circuit for sensing ambient brightness is electrically coupled to the main substrate, size, thickness and amount of power consumption of the flat panel display may be increased.